Gaetz vows to force vote to oust Speaker
McCarthy: "I will survive"
Also in today’s edition of ‘Regular Order’ for October 2, 2023:
Was there a pay raise stuffed in the CR?
An interesting procedural tale about Ukraine.
It’s the First Monday in October.
THIS WEEK. Speaker McCarthy will try to keep his job. The House will try to pass more government funding bills. The Senate may move on funding for Ukraine.
SPEAKER. Angered that the House approved a bipartisan temporary funding plan this weekend to avoid a government shutdown - with more Democrats voting for it than Republicans - Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) declared on Sunday that he will try to push Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his leadership post. "I will file a motion to vacate against Speaker McCarthy this week," Gaetz said.
GAETZ. "I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy," Gaetz told CNN's 'State of the Union,’ as he again accused McCarthy of not honoring his promises to conservatives. "The only way Kevin McCarthy is Speaker of the House at the end of this coming week is if Democrats bail him out," Gaetz added.
MCCARTHY. The Speaker was not expressing concern that Gaetz might win. "I will survive," McCarthy told CBS's 'Face the Nation,' as he accused Gaetz of a personal vendetta. "If he's upset because he tried to push us into a shutdown, and I made sure government didn't shut down, then let's have that fight."
NEWT. Even former House Speaker Newt Gingrich weighed in against Gaetz. "Is Gaetz secretly an agent for the Democratic Party? No one else is doing as much to undermine, weaken and cripple the House GOP,” Gingrich tweeted.
GOP. When you walk around Capitol Hill and listen to Republicans, it doesn't take long to figure out that most in the GOP can't stand Gaetz. They think he's a showboat. "Matt Gaetz is a charlatan," said Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-IN).
MOTION. And yet, Republicans find themselves now staring at a very public vote which will divide their own party - and possibly depose the Speaker. Just think if the GOP spent as much time focused on policy as infighting.
PROCEDURE. How would the motion to vacate work? It is a privileged resolution, so action would have to be taken within two days of Gaetz presenting his plan to the full House. So, if he gets up to offer it at some point today - then the House would have to vote by Wednesday.
OPTIONS. Just like we saw with impeachment resolutions, the House could vote to table (kill) the resolution; or it could also be referred to a committee.
DEMOCRATS. What will Democrats do? Some Democrats have said they will vote 'Present.' Others may join Gaetz. Yes, Democrats could take down McCarthy, but you also run the risk of getting someone who is less palatable.
STOPGAP. The clock is already ticking towards the next government funding deadline of November 17, which was set in the temporary funding plan unexpectedly approved by Congress on Saturday. There is no way that all twelve funding bills will be finished and negotiated by then - and I would bet another CR will be needed.
HOUSE. The House has passed four of the 12 funding bills. Two more are on the schedule for this week. One deals with energy and water projects, the other funds operations of Congress and the Legislative Branch. I don’t think the House and Senate can get all 12 bills done by mid-November.
SCHEDULE. Originally, the House was going to be off this week and next week - but now lawmakers will be in session. That creates an interesting vacuum on the House side of the Capitol.
HEARINGS. Because the House was scheduled to be on break, no House committees have any hearings planned for this week or next week. That's a lot of wasted time. We'll see if any committee decides to fill the void.
SATURDAY. If you missed the rundown on how the Congress avoided a shutdown, make sure to go back and read my wrap-up in Sunday's special edition. It was a wild day - with a very unexpected outcome.
PAY RAISE? As everyone scrambled on Saturday to figure out what was in the temporary funding plan suddenly put forward by Republicans, one Democrat claimed the GOP opened the door to a pay raise for lawmakers. Rep. Rose DeLauro (D-CT) was denounced by GOP lawmakers - but she may have been right.
DELAURO. "You are about to shut the government down, but hours before you do so, you give yourself a pay raise," DeLauro said on the House floor. “It is pathetic.” That angered Republicans, who grabbed the microphone to fight back.
SCOTT. "It is simply not true," said a visibly aggravated Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA). "It would be unconstitutional." Scott is correct - Congress can raise member pay - but it can’t take effect until after the next election.
CHANGE. Despite all the denials, Republicans asked unanimous consent later in the CR debate to add the section which DeLauro accurately noted had been omitted from the House GOP bill. The GOP said there wasn't a pay raise - but they made sure to add back the language barring a pay raise - just in case.
MISSED VOTE. Twenty minutes wasn't enough for some Republicans to cast their vote Saturday for or against the GOP stopgap funding resolution. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) took a lot of flak on Twitter for not getting there in time - he said the 15-minute vote wasn't held open long enough.
DONALDS. "I was coming up the elevator in the Capitol Building to go vote," Donalds said on Fox News Sunday. He claimed the vote was closed quickly by GOP leaders to ensure they won. "If I was a yes, they would have held the vote open for me," Donalds added.
BUDDY. I was surprised to see one name on the 'Not Voting' list, that of Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA). I say that because after the vote finished, I was outside waiting for lawmakers. Carter walked carefully down the steps and we said hello. I mentally noted that he was wearing a jacket and tie - and jeans.
SATURDAY WEAR. Speaking of what lawmakers were wearing - since that was such a big deal about the dress choices of Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) - there were all sorts of House lawmakers who could not find a jacket and/or tie on Saturday.
LONE STAR. The biggest offender was Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX), who showed up in a baseball hat and a vest with his name stitched on the back. In the Speaker's Lobby, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) ribbed Arrington about his clothing choices. "Which Fetterman is this?" Gaetz said with a laugh.
SUNSHINE. Sitting in the Speaker’s Lobby without a tie on, Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) also took some ribbing from Rep. George Santos (R-NY) - who volunteered to take Mills shopping at an area D.C. mall for some clothes.
MISSING BILLS. I've talked before about how House Republicans have refused to send certain bills to the Senate - even after they have been approved by the full House. We are seeing it again with respect to government funding bills - and I'm still struggling to figure out the strategy behind it.
CLERK. On Saturday, the House Clerk had no problem walking the House-passed CR across the Capitol to the Senate - but three other government funding bills which had been passed on Thursday by the House were left behind:
Defense Appropriations
Homeland Security Appropriations
State/Foreign Ops Appropriations
LEGISLATIVE NERD NOTE. One reminder about the Homeland Security bill which funds border security and DHS - the House voted specifically *NOT* to send that bill to the Senate, until a House GOP border security bill was signed into law. (That's not going to happen.)
CRITICISM. So when you hear GOP lawmakers complain that the Senate is not acting on House-passed spending bills, you will know that the House has not sent those bills to the Senate yet.
UKRAINE. There was one surprise development on Saturday evening at the Capitol regarding Ukraine. Initially, the House did not send over a $300 million plan for Ukraine which was stripped out of the Defense spending bill, and placed in a standalone measure. It was approved last Thursday.
BILL. When the CR was brought over to the Senate - no other bills were dropped off by the House Clerk. But later, there was a surprise - as the Ukraine supplemental was dropped off. It was quickly put to use by Senate Democrats.
FUNDING. After the Senate vote on the CR, the Majority Leader started the process to place that Ukraine bill on the Senate Calendar. The bill could well become the legislative vehicle for extra money dealing with Ukraine.
SPIDEY SENSES. This behind the scenes procedure has me wondering if there is some kind of back channel House-Senate leadership deal on Ukraine funding. Let’s see what happens.
SUPREME COURT. It's the first Monday in October, which means the new term begins today for the U.S. Supreme Court. The Justices start their work still hearing complaints from Congress about the need for ethics reforms - amid tales of Justices getting lavish vacations, private jet flights, and other freebies, something that could never wash for lawmakers.
DEMS. "Nothing prohibits the Court from adopting procedures to address complaints of misconduct by the justices," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). "If the Court won’t act, Congress will," vowed Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), though any effort to impose an ethics code would face a GOP filibuster.
GOP. The main Republican response continues to simply be circling the wagons to defend Justices Thomas and Alito. "Justice Alito is a hero who has done nothing wrong, and yet fools continue to attack him," said Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT).
CASES. The first case today is on a criminal justice reform law enacted during the Trump Administration.
RAP SHEET. September was the busiest month yet when it comes to prosecutions in the Jan. 6 investigation, as 51 defendants were sentenced. 1,163 people have been arrested overall from 49 states - South Dakota remains the only state where someone has not been charged with a Jan. 6 crime.
MUSE OF HISTORY. October 2, 1929. On this date, the Senate rebuked President Hoover, voting 47-42 to strip his authority to approve certain tariff changes on imported goods. Thirteen rebel Republicans sided with Democrats to deliver that loss, as Hoover allies tried to save his powers. "The legislative branch of our Government will retain its control of tariff making," Sen. Arthur Capper of Kansas argued in vain.
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:
The House meets at 12 noon.
The Senate is back on Tuesday.
Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree.
Email me at jamiedupree@substack.com
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“Is Gaetz secretly an agent for the Democratic Party? No one else is doing as much to undermine, weaken and cripple the House GOP,” Gingrich tweeted.
Gee, Mr. Speaker, I wonder how we ended up with someone as odious as Matt Gaetz in the U.S. House. Gingrich’s lack of self-awareness is stunning.
“Rep. Rose DeLauro (R-CT) was denounced by GOP lawmakers - but she may have been right.”
She was absolutely right… by removing the section calling for an automatic cost of living raise, it would have gone into effect, and given about an $8,000 raise to these failures who chose not to work over the summer to do their job.
And Rose is a (very amazing) democrat, not a republican… typos happen.